Transportation
California’s
highways, rail systems, and air corridors serve as our conduits for goods and
services, the way to work, pathways to recreation, and the means of getting to
countless daily activities. Our hundreds-of-thousands of miles of national,
state, and local highways form a web that ties us together in a state where a
trip from north to south can cover more than 700 miles. But even this immense
network of freeways, local streets, and rural roads has become overcrowded in
and between our growing cities as we travel from home to work, on holiday
trips, and to and from special events.
Reducing
the millions of hours lost each year to sitting in traffic, added air pollution,
and increased vehicle operating costs will require both conventional and
innovative approaches. Additional and improved roads are needed, and mass
transit can be expanded in areas serving many commuters. But we must also
look for solutions that change the nature of the problem, such as encouraging
large employers to locate in areas that disperse, rather than concentrate
traffic, additional use of telecommuting and satellite offices, and promoting
flextime to even-out the daily flow of traffic.
Improvements
in our transportation system, however, will not happen when the taxes that
are supposed to go for roads are diverted to pay for deficits created by bad
budget decisions. So creating a
balanced budget that directs transportation funds to transportation projects
is an essential starting point for fixing our overloaded systems of roads,
highways, and public transit.
Environment
Our
way of life depends on protecting the air, water, soil, plants, and wildlife
that make up the world we live in. During the past four decades, we have made
great progress in restoring and maintaining air and water quality and in
identifying plant and wildlife needs. There are now sufficient laws on the
books to safeguard these essential resources and habitats. The application of
these laws, however, must be based on real risks, respect for property
rights, and an understanding of environmental processes. Unfortunately, state
environmental decisions have not always followed these principles, and the
recent history of state and federal regulatory actions contain many examples
of questionable decisions that have resulted in lost opportunities for both
landowners and the environment. For example, private landowners are often
reluctant to provide or enhance habitat for threatened and endangered species
because this can trigger enforcement of restrictive government regulations on
land use. In other cases, land use restrictions have been put in place for
species that are not really threatened. And the decision to put MTBE in
gasoline when it was a known threat to groundwater provides a very clear
illustration of the bad judgment that results from
playing politics with environmental matters. In particular, we need to guard
against the use of environmental laws to create impasse in land use decisions
for the alternative purposes of special interest groups, which has been a
primary cause of our current energy shortages. My natural sciences background
and experience with government programs would be especially useful in the
Legislature’s consideration of these issues.
|
